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Returning to El Salvador: Two Sisters of Providence look forward to Romero beatification

by Jocelyn A. SidecoGlobal Sisters Report

Days before his murder Archbishop Óscar Romero told a reporter, “You can tell the people that if they succeed in killing me, that I forgive and bless those who do it. Hopefully, they will realize they are wasting their time. A bishop will die, but the church of God, which is the people, will never perish.”

Romero was shot to death as he said Mass March 24, 1980 after he exhorted Salvadoran soldiers to disobey their superiors if they were ordered to attack innocent civilians. The Salvadoran civil war (1979-1992) would eventually claim some 75,000 lives.

More than 250,000 people are expected for Romero’s beatification ceremony on Saturday, May 23, in the Plaza of the Savior of the World in El Salvador’s capital city, San Salvador. Among them will be two Sisters of Providence now living in the United States who are honoring family members lost during their country’s brutal civil war, as well as Romero.

Dr. Cathy Baldwin-Johnson never wanted to become an expert back in 1994 when she took a course on how to evaluate children for signs of sexual abuse; she just wanted to do a better job of taking care of her young patients in her practice in Alaska.

Two Sisters of Providence took more than their luggage with them when they boarded a plane at the airport in Great Falls, Mont., in the crisp early evening of Monday, February 2. Sisters Maryann Benoit and Ann Dolores Ybarrola, with 152 years of religious life between them, were the last Sisters of Providence to serve the needs of God’s people in Montana. They carried the faith, hopes, dreams, accomplishments and legacy of countless Sisters of Providence who have served in ministry in the state since 1864.